1966-68  Post-Academy days (1)

Now some interesting adventures began for me, even though my player was so confused, with his mind and body so contorted.

In an attempt to get Harvey’s mind and heart off his failures and disappointments, his father, Leslie, suggested he might like to go on a trip to Salzburg, Austria.It was a German Language & Music Study course for young people, based in a Hostel close to the Castle in Salzburg, lasting 3 weeks during August.

Harvey jumped at it!

Before we knew it, we were on a train pulling out of Victoria Station bound for Dover, and the ferry onward to Austria. 

After the long journey, about 30 young people arrived at our Salzburg hostel.  Would you believe it, the first thing Harvey did on arrival, was to strike up, with David, J S Bach’s ‘Concerto for Two Violins’!  I noted that Harvey played Violin 2 without hesitation, while David instinctively played Violin I. In spite of Harvey’s inbuilt inadequacies, nervousness and low self-esteem, I have often thought that the first violin solo part was no more challenging that the second violin.   But Harvey had just failed the LRAM and left the Academy early, and David was a young professional accountant and an enthusiastic amateur violinist.  However, it was such a joy to play, and I think I sounded pretty good!  I felt that Harvey was resonating with my body again.  Samuel Wesley, with his passion for Bach, seemed to be very close to us, even here in the birth-place of Mozart.

[A few hours later, with a bit of time to spare, Harvey sat alone outside the hostel reading his Penguin copy of ‘Thus spake Zarathustra’ by Friedrich Nietzsche!  Clearly, the Fenby/Delius encounter was still part of his bereavement process following his departure from the RAM. 

As we shall see, over the years, the resonances of Nietzsche/Religious enquiry/the nature of God/Delius vs Fenby are themes which have reached my body through Harvey’s inability to let them go].

As the course got under way, there was lots of music-making, but it seemed to me as though there was more singing than violin-playing for Harvey.   However, there were a number of instrumentalists, and on 3 August, Harvey completed a new composition specially written for the musicians on the course – a piccolo player, flautist, bassoonist, 2 pianists, an organist, percussion and strings, with Harvey & me leading from the ‘first’ violins – this time!  It was a set of three ‘Variations on a Theme of Gesualdo’, with the theme (an orchestrated version of a Gesualdo Motet) placed at the end rather than the beginning.  All very ‘tongue in cheek’, but an amazing achievement for a young musician.  Perhaps the writing of this piece for this particular group of newly-found friends was part of his grieving for his lost RAM hopes.

This new composition was performed in front of the Leaders of the Study Course, after just one rehearsal, and I think they liked it!

(Harvey’s composition – Variations on a Theme of Gesualdo – original manuscript)

There’s no doubt that Harvey’s Dad Leslie’s therapy for his musically-grieving son paid off.  The visit to Salzburg was a great success.  Lots of adventures, the momentous World Cup win for England, the Salzburg Festival, and an awareness of a wonderful tenor singer Fritz Wunderlich (who was soon to die after a tragic accident), new friends and much more.  After the long journey home, Harvey slept for 24 without interruption in the new family bungalow home in Rottingdean.

Various musical activities were now pursued, as Harvey tried to settle into his new surroundings, which were so very different from Bushey.  His parents had recently retired and the family had moved to live near Brighton. And what an amazing place that turned out to be!…………………………